We have arrived at the final four (cue March Madness theme) picks of the list! For today's pick, we are traveling back to the year 2014 and this is one of those films that, let's say if you do not like children, it reinforces that idea to the absolute breaking point.
Day 28 - The Babadook
A ferociously original debut from Jennifer Kent that due to its subject matter and presentation became one of the foundational entries in the "elevated horror" subgenre that still continues to this day. The story of a single mother as she takes care of her son, and his fear, has become a recent cult classic due to its unsettling imagery, dreamy sequences, and terrifying monster. There is a lot of classic horror Roman Polanski in The Babadook, down to the way Kent frames the house as a claustrophobic environment that you can't run away from, and it more than carries that 1960s/1970s horror with it perfectly as it deconstructs motherhood, what it is like to raise a child, and even the trauma of losing a loved one. The amazing Essie Davis delivers one of the great horror performances of the decade as Amelia, who has to fight not only the supernatural forces haunting her son but at times even her own son. The Babadook forces the audience to interrogate whether what it is that they're seeing is true or imaginary but Kent makes sure to make the horror as real as possibly, especially during the haunting scenes and makes sure to showcase that what they're experiencing is affecting them in incredibly emotional ways. One of the things that makes The Babadook so scary and terrifying is not only the design of the monster (looking like a cross between a refined gentleman and a demonic pale man from Hell), but the very real horror that it represents. The death of a loved one and the process of grief that we have to go through is never easy and it is often deeply emotional and traumatizing so Kent makes sure to portray that - whether the Babadook represents Amelia's husband or the fear of raising her child by herself or maybe the child's manifestation of his inner demons or even some type of unresolved grief, it is clear that the film leaves it all up to the audience's interpretation. Kent, along with her cinematographer and dread-inducing score, make sure to shoot the film as deeply personal drama but with a truly nightmarish and surreal atmosphere that makes it all the more horrifying for audiences. Whether its many of the confrontations between Amelia and her child or the actual sequences where the Babadook torments them throughout the house (including a prolonged bedroom scene that remains top tier horror), Kent does not keep the audience safe from her maximum scares and makes sure to build up to them like the great masters of horror. So much of The Babadook is one tremendous build-up that adds to the immaculate sense of dread and foreboding (we know that something terrible is at play, but we don't know what) and it really doesn't stop until its surreal ending. Filled with nightmarish visions of terror (including a dream where the Babadook invades older films) and featuring a beyond intense performance by Essie Davis, The Babadook borrows from many subgenres but remains a fabulous masterpiece of grief and torment.
*All of the recommendations that we make can be found at the El Paso Public Library Catalog!
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